By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON— Ok, here’s another reason to stay in shape and stop hiding behind those baggy clothes. More airport screeners are about to acquire Superman powers.
USA Today reports that Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration plans to install 150 security machines at airport checkpoints that will let screeners peek under passengers’ clothes.
The scanners have been used on a test basis at some airports, but mostly on folks who set off screening alarms and are pulled aside. Some groups are complaining that the machines are far too intrusive.
The House has passed a bill limiting the machines’ use for passengers who have set off some type of screening alarm. The bill is before the Senate, USA Today reported.
TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee told USA Today that the machines are “critical” to stopping terrorists with homemade bombs. The machines will be installed early next year and will have “privacy additions to create images that look like etchings”, the paper reported.
